Computer Associates President and CEO Gary Swainson outlined a corporate reorganization designed in part to better focus the company on new opportunities in management software earlier this month. Two days later, the company started making good on that plan by announcing the US$330 million buyout of Concord Communications.
CA, whose strength is systems and security management, says it is making the deal to add network management technologies to its portfolio. Concord’s eHealth software is used to monitor the performance of networks, including those that support VoIP, wireless and other new applications. “When we do lose in accounts, it’s typically because of network device support.
Customers are simply not buying systems management wares independently any more.…This acquisition will help us keep up on the network front,” said CA COO Jeff Clarke during a conference call.
In recent months, Concord has been the one making acquisitions. The company, which lost half a million dollars last year on revenue of US$106 million, bought IT business service management vendor Aprisma for US$93 million in January and converged network management vendor Vitel for US$4 million in December.
Industry watchers say CA’s Concord acquisition could help the company better compete with HP and IBM, but that CA also will be challenged to integrate eHealth and Aprisma’s Spectrum technologies with its own Unicenter offerings.